QUEENS 1921

In 1921, the numbering system in Queens, where most named streets were given numbers (a practice that strived to lessen confusion by eliminating different street systems in towns around the borough (ie. 2nd Street in Astoria and Flushing would thence have different numbers) had begun. As this excerpt from the list of Queens streets in the Brooklyn Eagle Almanac shows, though, in 1921 the new system was only in place in Woodhaven and other southern Queens regions. Numbering would gradually be implemented for the rest of the decade.

Of course, the new system was even more baffling, with 58th Avenue, Street, Place, Road, Drive, Lane …

Also, if you needed to find, say, 84th Avenue on the list, you had to know how to spell it and look in the E’s.

I remember reading somewhere that the reason the “58th Avenue, Street, Place, Road, Drive, Lane” situation existed was because the powers that be didn’t want the street numbers to go unusually high. (Unfortunately, I don’t remember where I read it, so I can’t cite it as a source.) As it is, the highest street number in NYC is 271st Street, on Hillside Avenue near the Nassau County border.

Unusually high street numbers, typically with huge gaps in between them are used in rural towns as a way of gauging distance between streets. It’s easier for emergency services to estimate arrival times and pinpoint locations